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Michael A. Terrell

wrote:

On Fri, 15 Feb 2013 00:32:41 -0500, "Michael A. Terrell"
wrote:

It was titled as a '73 model, but your description sounds like it. I
bought a new '83 Toyota pickup. I had it seven months when a woman
crossed the center line & hit me head on and spun me counter clockwise.
My head pushed the glass out of the back of the cab, and I bent the
steering column to the dash as I went sideways. It was the only time I
ever drove that truck without a seatbelt, and was told that I would have
been dead if I was wearing it. My dad had a motorhome built on a Toyota
chassis. It caught fire and burnt to the ground before a firetruck
could get there. I haven't had good luck with any Toyota. Pontiac,
Chevy, GMC & Dodge have never disappointed me. Some cost me less than
$100 a year to own & maintain. That Toyota pickup cost me $3000 for
seven months.
Interesting.
I have owned Toyota, Peugeot, VW, Renault, Ford GM, Chrysler,AMC,
Austin/Morris, Vauxhaul and Mitsu****ty. In my immediate family you
can add Honda, Nissan, Mazda, Sunbeam/rootes, Rover, and likely a few
I've missed.

As you may have surmised, I was not impressed with the Mitsu product.

The last GM was quite possibly the most problematic vehicle I've ever
owned - and I know my Dad had more trouble with his one GMC pickup
than with any two of his other vehcles. Just stupid stuff - like the
box inner fenderwells being too wide, so they rubbed on the tires
untill, after being brushed off by the dealer service manager for
about 6 months there was a service bulletin/recall to jack the
fenderwells in - The hanger bearing on the driveshaft squeaked and was
supposedly replaced 3 times by the local dealer - then failed on a
trip to Saskatchewan, where the dealer stated the bearing had NEVER
been removed and had been oiled instead - it blew the muffler off
about every 4000 miles if he didn't have the points changed at about
3000 (I later found the ground strap to the breaker plate had never
been installed) and a fan blade that made an unexpected exit from the
engine compartment trough the hood. Now that was back in 1968 IIRC.

The last GM vehicle I had was a 79 Chevy Malibu. It was a retired
Seriff's cursier with 123,000 miles when I bought it for $500. I drove
it 96,000 miles before I sold it. The only failure in that five years
was the starter solinoid. I was busy with a Telethon, so I called the
dealer to fix it. The SOB replace the starter instead of the solenoid,
and used an inpact wrench on the mounting bolts. They twisted one off,
but didn't tell me. A week later I am a hour away from home, it is one
AM and the starter just spins because it has rotated away from the
flywheel on the one bolt.

My Pontiac TransSport just never did work 100% - and kept giving me
reasons to dislike it on a regular basis - as much as I really wanted
to like the thing.

I had a '63 Catalina convertible. My first car. It ran great, and
other than a tuneup, I put a full set of new tires on it. That was
followed by a '66 GTO that was bought with a blown engine from an idiot
who took it to a race track and tried to put his foot through the floor.
A spun crank, and two connecting rods were damaged. I had a spare
crank, bought two rods and put it back together. I replaced the two
speed auto with a three, which was too bigh for the transmission oil
cooler so I lost a couple used transmissions. Later I had an 'Olds
Starfire' which was a compact Pontiac with different trim. The head
cracked at 125,000 miles. I had it remanufactured, and drove it for
several more years until a drunk ran out of the road and pushed it into
my '73 Chevy stepvan. She totaled her car, my car and did $200 damage
to the Stepvan. I bought a beat up '68 GMC handyvan when I got out of
the service for a work truck. Beat to death, and was painted with
orange acrylic by a house painter. It was a retired 'Stanley Steemer'
van, and he painted over all those huge signs. I drove it for about
four years before the engine blew. I was told it was an old taxicab
engine. He had shoehorned a Chevy 283 into the thong becaus ehe didn't
like the 292 it had when he bought it. The guy was strange.

I owned a 79 Dodge RAM. It had been in storage for years without
being started. It was gummed up, beat up, and pretty sad looking, but it
was $500 and I needed a truck. I cleaned the old plugs, and managed to
get it to fire up on two cylinders. I let it idle for 15 minutes,
coughing, smoking & shaking as two more started firing.
I drove it for a couple days, and the other two were working, so I gave
it a tuneup. I drove that truck for five years. The 97 Dakota I have
now I've had over five years. It was $2,800. The crap clearcoat is
peeling, and it has other problems, but it still runs and is safe.

The only new vehicle I owned was the '83 Toyota pickup. It lasted
seven months.

Dad's heavy half 1980? Toyota pickup had a wooden barn built on the
back to carry his electrical tools and supplies and virtually NEVER
had less than 2 tons on it - and he flogged the living daylights out
of it. The young fellows working with him on the job called him
"swervin' Mervin" and in 6 years he replaced one front wheel bearing
and one rear wheel bearing, and I think 2 sets of brakes and tires.
Absolutely NO other repairs. Anything that put up with Dad's use as a
truck that well was a tough little truck.

Other than the Aerostar body rust, I've been pretty happy with my
Fords - currently have 2 again. My used Chryslers have usually treated
me pretty well - the only new vehicle I ever owned was 1 '76
Ramcharger, and initial quality was AWFULL. Door adjustment so bad it
leaked when it rained - and after the dealer re-adjusted it a pencip
dropped on the floor would land on the ground - and the tailgate fell
off on my foot the first time I opened it. Terrible dealer PDI and
service. I and my kid brother did all the body adjustments, I
recalibrated the carb, and it was a pretty decent truck when I
unloaded it a year and a half later - at a significant financial cost.

We rallied the 72 R12 Renault for 3 years and never broke it.
The '67 Peugeot 204 was I guess typical of the breed. Not terribly
reliable, but unknown 5 year history before I ended up with it - and
central Africa is not easy on cars. The '61 mini was - well - British.
And it had 196,000 miles on it when I bought it for $60. What can I
say. The 1972 Vauxhall HC was a surprisingly good and reliable car.
Sold as a Pontiac Firenza up here - and the joke was "any f'renz a
yours ain't fi'renz a mine". If you treated it like a british car
instead of a Pontiac, it was fine. (open the hood and fondle it's nuts
every week or so)